#parthenodora

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"The Burial of Parthenodora", alternatively titled "The last flower of Reason"

The murder of Arsinoe's last high priestess caused an outrage amongst the ancient world for several reasons: the first being that there was no attempt to keep the distinguished lady alive to ransom her towards interested parties as was the custom. The second being that they'd looted her corpse then let her to rot within the halls of her own temple in anger over the soldiers she'd killed and the fact her acolytes/ grown-up kits burned the white mulberry trees planted by Arsinoe herself thus denying Rome the foothold in the silk trade they'd wanted the lands for. Parthenodora's achievements had granted her academic distinction to the point she was hired to teach medicine via correspondence in the academy of Pergamon. Alexandria also sent and bought her work after she became the first surgeon to successfully operate hip dysplasia (a method that Emperor Claudius later lamented was lost as it would have most likely fixed his own condition).

News of her death as well as the lack of respect for her position caused a series of riots in her native Greece, which led to the governor of the time being deported though he was found murdered in his bathtub before being officially demoted with only a strange golden boar to signal his killer. Several priests of the cult of Pietas were beaten to death on the streets as citizens blamed their 'false goddess' for the illegalization of fire-kissed Arsinoe's worship as well as the massacre. The pharaoh cut off all grain shipments from Egypt until he received Parthenodora's corpse in order to grant her the burial she deserved.

To assuage the situation yet also seem unattached to the crisis, the senate agreed to have her body shipped in exchange for a hefty sum which was readily agreed by the royal family but oddly enough Rome and Alexandria both received identical letters pinned on their palace doors stating "She is not for mortals ungrateful. Rest assured the ransom is paid. Not in gold but in roman blood". As it turns out, the ship carrying Parthenodora's body (which had been kept miraculously intact) along with the books bought by the library was intercepted by pirates claiming to be under the son of Poseidon. They slew all but one crew member so he could tell the tale then vanished under the sea. Legend has it the lady was buried in Atlantis at the foot of her lady's fountain, so that she would end where her patroness began.

Real painting name "The Lady of Shallot" by John William Waterhouse

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'Arsinoe brings another kit to her temple'.

Whilst Hephaestus was the only Olympian god to be called 'disabled' under the modern definition, it was the unblemished and perfectly formed daughter of Athena who would bring those considered unfit into her own house to raise indiscriminately. When arriving in Sparta for her travels, the goddess's only request to the ruling family was that any child born deformed be brought to her temple where they would find a suitable education and later employment. Hermes himself was known for bringing children left in the woods to die towards the lady of the forsaken with a satchel full of goat's milk, as was his son Pan who entertained them alongside his satyrs on the way to Arsinoe. Homer even has her accompanied by a cyclops in her return from the ocean whom she calls 'most gentle sea child', highlighting how none were hideous in the view of the goddess.

Here the artist depicts the homecoming of Apollonia later renamed Parthenodora, a noble child who according to the myths was born with misshapen legs and as such was left to drown in a basket once her parents found no one wished to marry the ill shaped girl. The fates had another plan in mind as she was found by Perseleia, who took the child to the then newly erected temple of Arsinoe where she would eventually become the first high priestess. She is said to have composed the Orphic Hymns for both the Athenide sisters.

Petrarch would later comment on the tragic symmetry of how Arsinoe's temple started with an Parthenodora and ended with an Parthenodora as the last high priestess of the goddess's temple held the same name as that child left in the river. Like her patron deity, the last Parthenodora stood her ground against the higher powers and used her goddess's own sewing needle to stab three roman soldiers to death before falling to the legion's swords. Whether the last Parthenodora understood the order to surrender is a widely discussed topic as she was born deaf which made her ascension all the more noteworthy. Donizetti later immortalized this moment in his opera 'Parthenodora' where before her death the priestess sings "Deaf! You call me thus yet you deny the will of the gods! I hear my lady, from the river she begs I save her children. As she faced Poseidon, now I face you!' as she runs to defend the kits (name given to the orphans left to Arsinoe).

The painting's real name is 'Mother bends down to kiss her child by Lakeside in Greek venue', made in 1870 by Lawrence Alma Tadema.

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'Parthenodora née Apollonia at the edge of her lady's riverbed'

Made by the incredibly talented @19catsandcounting who was kind enough to indulge me after i told them about my struggle finding classical inspired art with people who have visible disabilities. Here they portrayed the golden Athenide's first high priestess receiving a gift from her other godly mentor Phoebus Apollo who instructed Apollonia in the arts of music, healing and philosophy.

'Kourotrópho's gift is a cane carved out of his laurel tree to aid her steps into the temple she will preside over, adorned with his sacred crow and golden vines. On her neck the maiden wears Arsinoe's token: the splendid array of jewels later known as the necklace of Apollonia which featured coral for protection, garnets for friends reunited, sapphire for truth and emeralds for clarity of mind. She stands confident, rightly sure of herself whilst treading along the riverbeds of her mistress and carrying the torch of Reason's temple. As Parthenodora walks, the light bringer recalls the maiden as he first saw her: a clever yet timid child who was terribly frightened when brought to him as her condition impeded her from falling to her knees without pain before the god. Her robes are dandelion dyed cream for Loyalty and nettle dyed green in honor of Lady Compromise.

Such was the care for the young woman by the god that later epic poems claimed she was actually Khrysolýris's daughter thus sending his star crossed lover Ophelia to rescue her from the watery grave decided by her first family. Most sources disagree, calling the relationship yet another sign of the high priestess's predilection towards the torch-bearer goddess's virtues as Parthenodora found a new father to adopt her befitting a devotee of the lady of adopted family.